Meet our 2015 Naomi Chazan Fellows - and follow their trip to Israel

July 20, 2015

Earlier this year, we launched the Naomi Chazan Fellowship, a ten month leadership development program specifically tailored for young Jewish adults to build on their knowledge of Israel, and work to create a more holistic and pluralist communal discourse around Israel.

Each member of this group -- six young adults from Melbourne and Sydney, joined in Israel by five wonderful participants from NIF United Kingdom -- possesses a passionate sense of social justice, human rights, equality and pluralism.

Yesterday in Jerusalem we began our Israel journey, a nine-day study tour which is taking in some of the most promising areas of social progress in Israel. The Fellows are meeting with grassroots activists, civil rights lawyers, academics and journalists who are shaping the social change movement in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

This nine-day period is the anchor of the program -- once they return to Australia, the Fellows will be creating innovative and inspiring conversations in our community.

We would love you to follow our Fellows via social media. NIF Australia will be posting on our Facebook and (brand new!) Instagram pages throughout the next week, as will our fellows using the hashtag #NIFFellowship15.

We also want to invite you to meet our Fellows. You can hear about their trip to Israel and how they will be sharing their experiences to impact the conversation in our community. Coming to hear them tell stories of the incredible people they're in Israel meeting this week, as well as their hopes for Israel’s future, will be a wonderful experience.

We’re really excited to see where this program takes our community. We want to build a cohort of young people who are passionate about Israel, and deeply engaged in the work of Israelis to further the values of tikkun olam. We're very grateful to our generous donors who have helped make this program a reality.

We look forward to seeing you at our Sydney and Melbourne events -- we’re sure you’ll love meeting them -- as well as at our other Fellowship events going forward

The New Israel Fund Australia Foundation is a leading organisation committed to social justice, human rights and democracy in Israel. We work with Israelis experiencing poverty, discrimination and injustice to create a more inclusive, tolerant and equal society. Based on the vision of the country’s founders, we work towards an Israel that is “based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel… [and] complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex.”